HORSE TOWER
OKC band overcomes own ‘Trials & Truths’ on road to new album
A ctual thieves would’ve stolenHorse Thief’s instruments if the band wasn’t onstage using them.
In December, the Oklahoma City band was devastated after their tour van was broken into during a stop in Portland, Oregon.The quintet lost a safe, along with passports, iPads, computers, clothes and roughly $4,000 in sold merchandise.
Horse Thief frontman Cameron Neal was at a complete loss. As were his bandmates Cody Fowler (bass), Alex Coleman (guitar, keys), Alberto Roubert (drums, percussion) and Zach Zeller (guitar, keys).
“We were debating, do we just drive home? Do we finish our three shows? Do we call it quits?” Nealtold The Oklahoman. “We kept going, and the bigreason was because people bought tickets to the shows.”
This is the moment were a lot of people wouldcall it quits. But at 2 a.m., Neal returned to his hotel room, hopped online and shared what happened via the crowdsourcing website GoFundMe.
“The main reason we decided to ask for help was because we had no other choice . ... All that money was going to pay off the tour we were just on,” Nealsaid. “We were about to leave forEurope. To go to Europe, it’d cost you $1,200 to replace all your passports.”
Two days later, the band received nearly $8,000 in donations from friends, musiciansand music enthusiasts.
“For us, I think it was an eye opener,” Neal said. “There’s people that really care about the music and really care about this band. The least that we can do is to keep it going.”